Duwayne Brooks has expressed concerns over Scotland Yard’s admission that he
was secretly recorded as part of an alleged police smear campaign against
friends and relatives of Stephen Lawrence, the murdered black teenager.

Duwayne Brooks, friend of murdered south London teenager Stephen Lawrence, listens as his lawyer Jane Deighton talks to the media, about the meeting between them and Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg at the Cabinet Office in WhitehallPhoto: PA

Mr Brooks, who was with Mr Lawrence on the night he was killed by a racist gang, said he believed there was “more to come out” after John Grieve, a former Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner, admitted he instigated covert taping.

Mr Grieve said he authorised secret recording of a conversation between his officers, Mr Brooks and his lawyers in May 2000.

He said he deeply regretted “any distress, dismay or alarm that my decisions may have caused” but insisted the decision was made “within ethical frameworks”.

His admission is the first official indication that underhand techniques were used by police connected with Scotland Yard’s botched inquiry into Mr Lawrence’s murder in April 1993.

Peter Francis, a former undercover police officer turned whistleblower, last month disclosed that his superiors wanted him to find “dirt” that could be used against the Lawrence family and that his role was with-held from the inquiry into the case by Sir William Macpherson.

“There will be more to come out. It seems a bit odd that he’s just come out and admitted to it once.”

He added: “I think there is lots more to come out. Let’s just wait and see.”

David Hanson, the shadow policing minister, said: “The admission from a senior Met officer that interviews with Duwayne Brooks were indeed secretly recorded mean an independent inquiry is all the more needed.

“These differing accounts of secret recordings and the activities of some police officers surrounding the Lawrence case and Macpherson inquiry make it more vital we get full disclosure.”

Neville and Doreen Lawrence have called for a public inquiry into the allegations, which the late teenager’s mother said made her feel “sick to the stomach”.

Last week she held meetings with Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and Theresa May, the Home Secretary.

Mr Brooks was at the bus stop in Eltham, south east London in 1993, with Stephen when a gang of racist youths attacked them.

He managed to get away but 18 year-old Stephen, who dreamed of becoming an architect, was stabbed to death.